September 22, 2014

Located on the border of former East
Germany, Geisa was once the western-most
town of the former Warsaw Pact countries. Today, it lies in the central GermanState of Thuringia,
a forested region with shallow hills, undulating meadows and several gushing rivers.
In the days of the Cold War, these
terrain features could ostensibly stop or slow down any possible Soviet armour
advance towards Frankfurt and beyond.Only the Fulda Gap allowed a free run to the
Soviets, with the result that its defences figured predominantly in NATO war
plans. A study tour of the Gap was, thus, central to prudent defence planning
in the South Asian context, as the US Naval Post-graduate School’s brief for us
stated.That is how five of us former
armed forces officers ended up for a week-long jaunt in the heart of Germany,
last March.

Arrival and pick-up at Frankfurt
airport was flawless, as was the drive to the hotel on the no-speed-limit
autobahn (motorway).I noticed that the
neatness all around was, in no less measure, due to the absence of ugly
billboards that have blighted the skylines in our own cities.An oddity compared to many other European
cities, Frankfurt’s high-rise glass and concrete buildings
were visible on the skyline from afar. With over 200 international and national
banks, as well as one of the world’s largest stock exchanges, Frankfurt
is indeed well-structured to be Europe’s largest
financial centre.

While checking in at Le Méridien Park Hotel, I was surprised
by a classic blonde German-looking bellhop, for he was actually an Afghan who had
stayed as a refugee in Peshawar for
many years.Umar, who could speak fluent
German as well as Urdu, turned out to be a handy guide during the stay at the
hotel. After the domestics were done I hastened
to the city centre, for it was a Sunday and it would be fun to watch the
weekend revellers, as Umar suggested. While walking down the streets, I was pleased
to know that Germans continue to put up with my namesake, for quite a few roads,
plazas and apartment blocks carry that name. Wilhelm-I was proclaimed the
Kaiser (emperor) when Germany
was first unified into an integrated nation state in 1871. He is one of the few old-time leaders whose
name lives on in the city, despite zealous renaming of streets and squares in
post-war Germany.

As soon as I stepped out of the hotel, I was overwhelmed by
the grandeur of the nearby 126-year old Frankfurt Central Station.Why, I sadly rued, could we not similarly
preserve the splendour of our own 154-year old Lahore Railway Station and its
environs, now a messy reflection of its former colonial glory? Walking on Münchener
Street, which starts from the station, one could
be excused for thinking that this was somewhere in the Middle East;
almost every shop sells either Turkish or Arab food and groceries.

Heading towards the Innenstadt (Inner City), I decided to
first walk along the green belt that forms its perimeter. Cyclists could be seen pedalling in specially
marked cycle lanes.Sunday was also a
day for showing off their exotic cars, and many a nutty motorist raced past in his
roaring convertible or coupe.A stroll
on Goethe Street was
eye-dazzling, as it has some of the
most prestigious fashion shops in the world, and caters to the rich and the
famous.Being neither, I strode off to
the commoners’ city square marked by the Hauptwache (Guard House), once a
prison and now simply denoting the city centre. A prominent landmark of the Innenstadt is the
baroque St Catherine’s Church, the largest Lutheran church in Frankfurt, which
stands in the midst of many modern buildings. Like all European inner cities,
the square was awash with holiday gaiety and liveliness.Street musicians heartily played trumpets and
accordions for bystanders. A curious contraption seen in the square was the Velotaxi,
a three-wheeled cycle rickshaw cocooned in a light aerodynamic shell. It was meant for tourists and could be taken
into pedestrian-only zones without any hassle.

Near the
Hauptwache is the famous MyZeil shopping mall, a modern glass-panelled
structure with its trademark vortice-like hollow on the façade, that almost seems
to suck one in. The mall houses over a
hundred stores, besides play areas, atriums and restaurants.It marks the beginning of the Zeil, Germany’s
most crowded, pedestrian-only shopping street, that has famous retail stores
selling items twice as expensive.

On my way back
to the hotel, I was suddenly accosted by two Turkish-looking men who claimed to
be plainclothed police undercover agents.They promptly displayed their ID cards which seemed too blurred to be read
without glasses. In a bit of a tizzy, I asked them what they wanted. On being
unable to produce my passport, which I wasn’t carrying, they asked me if I had
cash on me. Ah, so this was my first-ever mugging, I realised!When I told them, with some derring-do, that
I was a military man, they asked if I had any ID. On being shown one, they immediately
apologised, and said that drug peddlers usually had hordes of cash on them,
which is what they were checking for. They
told me that Taunus Street on which we were standing, was the seediest one in
Frankfurt, and that it was surprising that I was walking about merrily in such
a hazardous locale. One of them volunteered to escort me to the hotel, which
was not too far off.When I thanked him
in Turkish – having a 20-word vocabulary – he was momentarily not sure if I was
an illegal immigrant, but finally replied back in good humour, saving me yet another
interrogation!

Next morning, the
bus for Geisa arrived outside the hotel exactly five minutes before departure
time, reminding us of our precise military time-keeping of yesteryears. Since
public transport is quite efficient in Frankfurt, the traffic on the city roads
was not congested and we were soon on the autobahn. The beautiful views of
rolling hills and lush cultivated lands was often broken by patches of dense
forests. Soon after getting off the autobahn, we passed by Wasserkuppe, a small
mountain in whose shadow, glider pilots have flown for over a century.Lately, paragliding has also become popular
as the thermals in the woodless valleys offer excellent soaring possibilities.

When we reached
Geisa, we were not expecting it to be a town as small as it was, with a
population of less than 2,800.It is a quaint
little settlement with small terracotta-roofed houses, and neat cobblestone
streets. The town was heavily fenced and garrisoned when it was part of East
Germany. Now, Geisa is one of many small towns preferred by Germans, who want
to be away from the hectic life of big cities to which they commute only for
work.We were struck by the serenity of Geisa’s city centre with its old market place,
town hall and dainty flower shops. Geisa seemed quite religious in its outlook
if one were to go by its 14 churches, one for every 200 inhabitants. In fact,
we could see church spires in small towns all through our trip, though that is not
necessarily an indicator of godliness in today’s Germany, or most of Europe,
for that matter.

We were lodged
in what was once an eighteenth century castle, with its prison right across the
castle courtyard. The castle overlooked a mysterious wooded stretch which hid
the ruins of the town’s thousand-year old settlement of Gongolfiberg, as a
later walk in the woods revealed.The renovated
castle building is the seat of Point Alpha Foundation which holds memorial
conferences and organises tours to the Point Alpha Museum and memorial, a short
distance form Geisa. Point Alpha, once manned by the US forces, was the NATO
counterpart of Geisa, just as Wagah is to Attari in our context. We visited the
museum, which has dioramas of life in former East Germany under a stifling
communist dictatorship; it has many murals and photographs of people who managed
to cross the heavily guarded border and escaped into West Germany.

Several days
were spent in the fields around Fulda Gap, poring over military terrain maps.It was not an unusual sight to see groups of
students and even senior citizens busy in similar study trips, though their
interests seemed more aligned with Nature than the military.The Rhon Biosphere Reserve, of which Geisa
and Fulda are a part, is among the biggest natural parks and recreation
landscapes of Central Europe. Its basalt plateaus, moors, forests and streams
are popular amongst hikers as well as bikers, who use specially designated
trails. There was no garbage to be seen anywhere, no billboards, and no
unsightly messages scrawled on rocks, as is the case in our mountainous
areas.The Chitral Gol National Park and
Karakoram National Park could qualify as Biosphere Reserves (a title granted by
UNESCO for keeping Nature ‘intact’) but sadly, our people have neither the
learning nor the interest in preventing harm to the environment.

Our visit to
Geisa came to an end with a series of briefings in the castle’s modern conference
room.While we had learnt about NATO
defences against a sudden Soviet-led attack, the trip was also an excellent
sampling of a fast-paced Frankfurt and a laid back Geisa, with unspoilt Nature
seamlessly connecting the two.

A return to
Frankfurt was rounded off with a farewell dinner at a remarkable restaurant, a short
distance from our hotel. It was the Druckwasserwerk Restaurant, which
was once an old water pumping station, at the edge of Main River.With its cavernous interior, vaulted ceiling
and dimmed lighting, it beckons the honeymooning couples, as much as the golden
agers like us. After a sumptuous dinner, we walked back along the Main, and
parted on a unanimous note that few things could be more salubrious than a trip
into the heart of Germany.